Sir Michael Palin has revealed that he has made arrangements for the end of his life. In a recent interview, the Monty Python legend discussed his will and how his children “know where to find what they need to find should I die”.
The television icon also opened up about the heartbreaking loss of his wife, Helen, who passed away in 2023. Reflecting on their love story and shared life, he said: “Helen and I met on holiday in 1959. I was about 16 at the time. It was a holiday romance that built up to a long marriage. There was always a feeling that we were a unit – I hadn’t really realised until that after she’d died.”
He added: “That was a difficult thing: there was half of your life gone. I still say, ‘We’ve got in our garden…’, ‘We have two grandchildren…’ although she’s still here. I still use the ‘we’. I find it almost impossible to say, ‘I am…'”
During his appearance for the On the Marie Curie Couch podcast, Michael detailed that his wife had been suffering for years following a knee replacement before being diagnosed with “a number of different things”.
He added: “She had some problems with her heart. The gradual withdrawal from life was something I think she found very, very difficult; she was a gregarious person and full of fun. In the end, she was diagnosed with kidney failure. Then she got pneumonia and we went into hospital. We had a pretty bad experience there.”
He revealed that the care she had received at a Marie Curie hospice had been transformative, explaining that she was more content during her final days than she had been throughout the preceding six years, reports the Mirror.
Michael shares three children – William, Rachel and Thomas – with his late wife Helen. He confessed: “I do think about death and the family are rather wonderful about it. I’ve made my will and all that. My family, my children, know where to find what they need to find should I die.”
Whilst he insists he doesn’t fixate on mortality and embraces each day as it comes, he acknowledges being “slightly unsteady” on his feet occasionally.
He explained: “I’m 82 now, which is longer than any Palin male has lived for 200 years. I keep fit and I’m working, fortunately, and doing some quite difficult stuff, filming and all that.”
He added: “I kid myself that I’m going to be alright, and yet I know that I won’t because you feel tired at certain times. You’re slightly unsteady as you get out of bed, and you think, what’s happening? Well, the old car’s getting a bit rusty.”
Michael underwent open heart surgery in 2019 and believes that Helen’s death has enabled the entire family to confront mortality more openly – something he was discouraged from doing during his childhood.
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